A new genetic study raises the tantalizing possibility that Thomas Jefferson may have had Jewish ancestry.
—Newsweek (3/12/07)
The happiest moments of my life have been the few which I have passed at home in the bosom of my family, one being an occasion that occurred on Monday past. Misfortune had befallen cousin Mendel who, Read More
A Great Improvisation: Franklin, France and the Birth of America, by Stacy Schiff. Henry Holt, $30, 490 pages.
When George Bush launched his recent European charm offensive, he began his biggest speech with an attempt at levity. “I follow in some large footsteps,” he reminded the solons of Brussels, describing the extraordinary impact of Benjamin Read More
Greenback: The Almighty Dollar and the Invention of America , by Jason Goodwin. Henry Holt, 321 pages, $26.
It’s easy to forget that many aspects of the American past were as messy as the present of “failed states” that we’re engaged with now. I was in Afghanistan when I read Greenback , Jason Goodwin’s Read More
Benjamin Franklin , by Edmund S. Morgan. Yale University Press, 339 pages, $24.95.
Have the Founding Fathers ever had so much attention? In the mid- to late 90′s, you could hardly open a newspaper without reading a lurid story about Thomas Jefferson, the Great Miscegenator.Acouple years ago, Alexander Hamilton enjoyed a brief vogue. Then, in Read More
